One of the most bizarre events of World War II occurred on May 10, 1941 when Rudolf Hess, Deputy Fuhrer of German leader Adolf Hitler, parachuted into Scotland following a solo flight from Germany. His mission: to negotiate a peace treaty between Britain and Germany.
Hess was a long-time member of the Nazi Party and a staunch Hitler associate, participating in the Beer Hall Putsch, a failed Nazi attempt to overthrown the government of Bavaria, and assisting Hitler in the writing of Mein Kampf, the future Fuhrer’s autobiographical book that outlined Hitler’s political plans for Germany. He signed into law the 1935 Nuremberg Laws that stripped German Jews of their rights as well as the instruments for lebensraum, the German plan for expansion in the east. In 1939, Hess was third in line to succeed Hitler next to Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goring.
During his flight, he was able to evade the heavily defended skies over Britain, but ran short of fuel to his destination and was forced to parachute. He was captured and detained by British authorities and on interrogation, stated that he had come to meet with the Duke of Hamilton (mistakenly believing the latter to be an opponent of the British government) to discuss a possible peace treaty between Britain and Germany. Under this arrangement, Britain would allow Germany a free rein in continental Europe, while Germany would allow Britain to keep its overseas possessions. It must be noted that at that time, the Battle of Britain (the failed German plan to bomb Britain into submission preparatory to a cross-channel invasion), had wound down and Hitler was now fully focused in the east, having just invaded Yugoslavia and Greece (April 1941) and planning the massive invasion of the Soviet Union, slated for June 1941.
When word about Hess’s flight reached Germany, Hitler was furious, stripped Hess of his positions, and ordered that Hess be shot on sight if he returned and portrayed as a madman who flew to Scotland on his own. The German press subsequently depicted Hess as “deluded” and “deranged”. In the aftermath, some speculation arose that Hess had indeed been officially sent to broker a treaty, but failing that, Hitler could disavow involvement in the plan. The British government rejected such speculation. Even so, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin continued to believe that the British had concocted the whole incident.
Hess was held in custody for the remainder of the war and then was returned to Germany in 1946 to stand trial in the Nuremberg Trials. He was found guilty of crimes against peace and conspiracy to commit crimes, and was handed down a life sentence. He served his sentence in the notorious Spandau Prison until his death by hanging suicide in August 1987, at age 93. (Speculation arose that he was murdered, pointing to his advanced age, that he could not have been physically able of hanging himself.)